KEEPING GOOD COMPANY

I find it so important to connect with other writers from time to time. It is like watering a plant, feeding it from time to time, nurturing it gently and watching it grow. Really. The benefit can be felt when spending an uplifting day with other writers. The buzz of inspiration and growth, turning to motivation for writing, and feeling the sense of soaring.

No writers block can penetrate this.

Keeping good company is an essential for writers.

Today, I spent the time with seven other writers - members of the Romantic Novelists Association. It was brilliant!

Thanks all.

Marilyn xx

LEARNING THE CRAFT

EFFORT, ENERGY, ENTHUSIASM


I am the sort of person who likes to learn. If there is a course for the subject I am interested in, I will do it.

I've done courses galore! Fashion, Cooking, Art, Graphology, Psychology, Marketing, Business, Nursing, Law, Creative Writing, and others.

Recently I came across a very large group of writers, mostly unpublished, who really resented the idea that writing can be learnt. They believe that writing is a talent. You either have it, or you don't. They believe that it cannot be learnt, no matter what. I couldn't understand this.

I think the opposite. Sure it is always good to have some talent, but even that is a starting point. Having come late to creative writing, I really believe that writing a novel can be learnt. The "How to Write" books, the Creative Writing courses - casual and with qualification courses, writing conferences, have all taught me a great deal. But even those aren't enough.

Of course writing must be put into practice regularly. And continuous writing and dedication to getting to a goal, is necessary for improvement. When I return to what I wrote the first year, I'm embarrassed... in fact it is hard to return. Not that it was all that bad. In fact, I am often pleasantly surprised. But the style is different now - less formal, less jarred, less awkward.

However, something in those pieces of writing didn't always work. Sometimes the characters were lacking in something; the sentences were awkward; the dialogue was repetitive.

But what makes it difficult to write a full novel, is structuring.  Good structure, makes a novel hang well.... as well as well drawn characters, plot and dialogue.

Whether there is talent or not to start with, 
it is the Energy, Effort and Enthusiasm, and the willingness to learn from every source, that will make writing improve.

Help! I Need a Publisher!: CHECKLIST FOR GETTING PUBLISHED

Help! I Need a Publisher!: CHECKLIST FOR GETTING PUBLISHED: "I believe that if you can say yes to all of these, you give yourself more chance of being published. Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that..."

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This is an interesting and amusing piece from Nicola Morgan's blog. Please read it if you are interested in becoming published. It rings true ....amusingly true, if you feel the desperate pangs of hunger of becoming a published author.

A VERY USEFUL PIECE.

Marilyn x

Don't be Afraid

I recently took part in a Forum on Authonomy about the Existence of God. Although I shouldn't be surprised, most people on the forum didn't believe in God, in any form. Nor did they believe in the Bible. That is fine. But what I found, was that they all stemmed from a basis of ignorance. I mean, they didn't know, but they argued as though they did know.

It is amazing how many do not believe in a God, because of the suffering of innocent people in the world, especially children. They think that God should intervene. Always. And some were using scriptural verses very much out of context, as if everything anywhere in the bible could be directed to any or us at any time.

It is also amazing that unbelievers believe that when good things happen, such as their children escape serious illness, or they escaped some accident, they attribute it to themselves, as good and able parents. However, if they fail, they attribute the failure and the bad things to God. They say, "If he was a good God he would allow evil to happen."

So many of us are unaware of God's promises to us in the Bible, and what he expects of us in order to inherit these things. What is more disheartening, is that so many are not interested. And so many confuse religion with the Bible.

However, I suspect, that there are many who do believe, but are not willing to stand up and speak out. I think that people should not be afraid to stand up and say that they do believe in God ... whether they can prove it or not. No one asks unbelievers to prove it. In fact, when they do try and prove it, it is as if it is a process of elimination ... as ridiculous as ..."well bad things happen, if there was a God, and he was a good God, he would not allow bad thing so happen. Therefore there can't be a God." As easy as that, the godless disprove God's existence.

But what we fail to ask is: 


What if there is a God, and he has already given us so much, why then would he continually intervene? 


Would we be able to find the answers we have found if he did? In science, in archaeology, in anything at all?


Because if he continually intervened, and wrecked any of the processes that even we put in place, we would never discover anything, how anything works, and everything would be topsy turvy. And it isn't. 


Think about it. Never stop thinking. Life is no accident.

2011 YOUR BEST YEAR YET

Dear All,

It has taken me 14 days to get around to actually writing my blog....a strange two weeks since the start of the year. HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all. Better late than never! But it was nothing stranger than cobwebs of confusion in my mind.

Last Saturday I went to a Study Day, titled, 2011 Your Best Year Yet. I nearly didn't go because I thought that I was in no doubt as to what I had to do, or even how I had to do it. But I discovered by 4pm that day that I had no way of sorting out the wheat from the chaff, as it were, from hundreds of things I actually do. Which I do in no particular order of priority.

After a series of organised Mind Maps on separate pieces of A3 paper, we asked some probing questions about:

MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS LAST YEAR

MY  BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS

WHAT I LEARNT FROM IT ALL


HOW I LIMIT MYSELF


MY PERSONAL VALUES


MY ROLES IN LIFE


MY 8 MAJOR ROLES AND GOALS FOR EACH

I came up with a review of my major focus for this year.

The Outcome, was a Best Year Plan, with my TOP 10 GOALS

10 might seem a lot, but it was difficult to choose ten! I had at least 20, so you can imagine how hard it was to strike out half of what I thought was important.

Believe it or not, they were things that I knew I needed and wanted to do or achieve, but they were buried amongst everything else, that they didn't stand a chance.

It was a most interesting and useful exercise! And I returned home feeling much brighter and lighter.

Maybe you could try it. Post me a comment if you're interested, or want to know more.

Best Wishes for this year

Love
Marilyn xx

MEANINGS

Whilst I read for enjoyment, I also read to learn about good writing practices. I read, to see how to good writers write successfully. I read fiction to learn from good novelists. Much but not all of my enjoyment of a novel, comes trying to figure out how the author did it.

MEANINGS ARE IMPORTANT. 

As a reader, I like to know Why? What? How? When? Where? etc.

What I mean is, that I like to know the REASON a character does what he does, behaves how s/he behaves. The Meaning? Any possible Reason. I think that the writer owes it to me, if I am spending my time  to read the book.

Yes, I like a good story, but I prefer one that does not leave me for a long time. I want one that has had an effect on my mind long after I have read the book.

I want to be able to say : -
"Oh yes, now I know why he likes cooking, and touches food the way he does on TV"

....or, "Oh! Now I understand that he is an angry man because ...."

or, "That's why he's so pernickety about his clothing."

 These reasons and meanings help me to see life through the eyes of the character. It helps me to empathize with him or her. It helps me to like, or understand behaviours, when necessary.

This is why I like to write this into my own writing. Because as a reader, I long for the writer to let me into the minds and lives of the characters. Without it, I feel the writing is empty.

IMAGINATION

28th December

My imagination is poor....which is a difficult for writing fiction...and more difficult to admit to it in my blog. Sounds an impossible situation! Mainly, it is poor, if I am to just create a world out of nothing, nowhere I'd ever been, seen or heard of, with people or beings, doing things I have never thought of or heard of. I suppose I could probably force a little imagination, but not enough for a whole book.

I find though, that I am better if I can start from a place, person or situation, that I do know, have heard of or have become interested in. What I have found, is that once I have begun writing, imagination becomes alive. And   the most curious thing can happen, when a character that I have created, takes over, and begins to do things or say things, that were not in my plot or in my head.

It is like being taken over by aliens, because it is a feeling of losing control...not always in a bad way, but in a magical way. I let it happen, and continue to write, led by the voice of the character. When I am finished, I will re-read it, and decide whether to cut it, or parts of it, or keep it. But this is not always easy, because I always wonder if the voice of the character should be kept instead of my own voice, which could sound stilted and unnatural in comparison.

I am writing the prequel of Deep in the Cocoa, which is the second of the Cocoa Trilogy, and I have found that throughout, my imagination has certainly been sparked on many occasions, from the humdrum of reality of the historical elements in the story... although not all the historical elements are humdrum. Some of it is horrific, some of it scary, some of it quite unpleasant. Too much is the latter. And I have had to use my imagination to create the pleasant from the horror.

This Christmas morning, my son asked his girlfriend of 7 years to marry him. It was a long awaited event...especially by the girlfriend. But it is because he wanted everything perfect. The perfect ring, and the perfect timing, when she was not expecting it. I think it got the desired result. Of that I am sure. Now, because I have a poor imagination, I am thinking, that this could be the perfect launchpad for me to write a romantic novel. In fact, it could be the perfect romance. But I am still struggling to write romance. Every time I begin, my hero or heroine goes off and does something that I cannot get them out of easily. But I will not let it deter me. I will continue to try. Whether the engagement will be the beginning or the end of the novel, I don't know. But I won't let it go to waste.

As it is said, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. I ought to take advantage of this opportunity...

Hope you had a Merry Christmas.

Best Wishes
Marilyn xx